Warriors Arena at Piers 30-32 worries neighbors

When Lawrence Stokus moved into the Bayside Village apartment complex in South Beach 10 years ago, his friends had one question: “Why?”

They saw the industrial warehouses, the decrepit piers and the empty streets and heard the rumble of traffic overhead on the Bay Bridge. Stokus said he simply desired the sunny weather in his retirement — and now loves surveying the bustling streets, palm trees and Giants fans from his rooftop deck.

The historically maritime neighborhood’s ship has come in — but Stokus and some other longtime residents wish it would turn back, at least a little. They’re leery of the Golden State Warriors’ proposal for a basketball arena right across the street on Piers 30-32 and say there can be too much of a good thing.

“Everybody realizes this is the area, the hot area,” said the 67-year-old retired mortgage banker. “Of course, now that it’s come into its own, everybody wants the front row seat.”

And that means blocked views, more rowdy crowds and increased traffic, some neighbors argue. They’re also curious about the fate of the triangular parking lot across the street from Piers 30-32 that comes with the package deal. The Warriors say it will be developed, and neighbors fear that means a big parking garage.

For Stokus, the sticking point is that the plan would eliminate the potential for more park space. He’d love to see a Marina Green replicated on the eastern waterfront.

“This has turned into a Marina Green in concrete,” he said, referring to the stretch immediately around Piers 30-32.

That should be helped by a new park being built just south of Piers 30-32 that is due to open next year, but Stokus believes city planners should think bigger and replicate the area around AT&T Park ,which sports a harbor, a playground, sloping lawns and kayak and bike rentals. City officials and the Warriors owners have said they consider that area a model for the new development, as well.

The neighborhood was originally a hub for ships, industry and railroad terminals until containerized cargo shipping made the finger piers there much less important. South Beach became a wasteland until it was eyed by City Hall for downtown workers’ housing.

And then, whoosh, came the Giants ballpark and the tech industry and now the neighborhood is a booming go-to destination.

The Waterfront Land Use plan, adopted by the Port Commission in 1997, spelled out a vision for the South Beach waterfront, which now sounds downright adorable in its reference to a future baseball stadium.

But this part could have been written today with regards to Piers 30-32:

“Residents and employees in the area should be able to enjoy the benefits of living and working along the waterfront in an environment that is safe and inviting,” the document reads.

“The deteriorated condition of the piers and general lack of waterfront activity do not foster that feeling of security and, in fact, tend to create a physical and aesthetic barrier to public enjoyment.”

Whether that will be helped by a basketball arena is, of course, up to interpretation.

“We’re still trying to get used to the Giants,” said Katy Liddell, president of the South Beach, Rincon and Mission Bay Neighborhood Association, who has lived in the Portside condo complex since 1995.

“Everybody around here, even though they love the Giants, they love it when the season is over and we get a little bit of a break,” she said. “If the Warriors went into 30-32, we wouldn’t get a break.”

She said her neighborhood group is pretty split on the idea of a basketball arena, but is uniformly ticked off that they first heard of the plan in the newspaper.

“That’s always the thing that angers people is when people do things in your backyard and don’t bother to ask you first,” she said.

The Warriors say they’re keenly aware that they need to do a better job of reaching out to the neighborhood, but that once their plan for an arena got out, they felt they had to make the announcement earlier than they would have liked.

P.J. Johnston, a spokesman for the Warriors arena, assured that the plan isn’t just for a giant arena and nothing else — and that it will be a big boon to the neighborhood.

“There will absolutely be open space,” he said. “There will absolutely be water access and there will absolutely be a better, more attractive use of space for everybody in the area, not jut when they’re at basketball games.”

The Warriors shared polling data from May 15 that showed total support for the project among city residents is 66 percent. For those who live within 1.5 miles of the site, the figure jumped to 75 percent. Both numbers climbed above 80 percent when provided a more detailed description.

Stokus, by the way, wanted it stated very clearly that he wants the Warriors to move to San Francisco — just on the other side of AT&T Park. The fate of his marriage could be at stake considering his wife, Janice, is a huge Warriors fan and goes to Oakland regularly for games.